This week had some cool moments, but it was tough to beat last week. Can we talk about Michael Angelakos and Larry Fitzmaurice’s great feature on him at Pitchfork? It’s been a very brave year for musicians on all levels, and I felt that great piece kept the streak going. Also, I loved the entire format of that feature altogether — The scrolling magazine look, which I kind of think served as the final death knell to print publication.

And speaking of which, I read that Stereogum’s wealthy parents BuzzMedia have purchased SPIN and are planning to expand its online content. Word on the Internet is that they have no plans to keep the print edition going. What does Weingarten think of all this, as he’s helped resuscitate the quality of SPIN in the past several months, and further more, where does that put Stereogum, considering both it and SPIN have evolved into the same sort of indie / alternative pop culture well-known sources for news, features, Top (whatever) lists, streams, interviews, etc.? I’m aware BuzzMedia owns Gorilla vs. Bear, BrooklynVegan and other music sites, but things just got a bit blurry at the top of the food chain.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti’s Mature Themes is out there. JoJo put out a great sexed up new single this week produced by Noah “40″ Shabib called “Demonstrate,” and it’s a little bit Aaliyah, a little bit The Emancipation of Mimi.

Humblebrag, but the guys from Trash Talk and members of Odd Future gave me a virtual pat on the back for that article I wrote last weekend on Frank Ocean, Trash Talk and why not caring is the most hardcore thing to do in 2012. Most successful piece I’ve ever written, and I’m humbled whenever anyone notices my words.

I’ve never tried to post a picture before, so if I screw this up I’m sure I’ll be too ashamed to ever try again. I found this fan pic of a Future Islands show today. Look at his package, is that a boner or does he have a pair of socks in there?

Pretty sure it’s a different person. I scanned Murph’s twitter and the posts Aren’t Typed Like This So I Think It Isn’t Tyler. Not exactly court worthy evidence but other people have been saying it isn’t Tyler.

I would be for it, but it’s pretty much been all but scrapped at this point. It’s getting zero support in the city and minimal support in the suburbs. If for some reason they are able to get that thing up and running, it would be a pretty telling statement about the area. Zombie theme park? Yes. But urban farming as a means to re-concentrate the cities population and put the massive acreage of abandoned land to use? No.

The coolest things this week for me were everything to do with the Gaslight Anthem (seeing them live last Sunday which down as the best show of the year for me as of right now, Handwritten being released and a few reviews that got me to over-think public perception based on brand name) and Title Fight’s new single “Head In the Ceiling Fan” surpassing my alright high expectations.

But about those Gaslight Anthem reviews — This time around, Pitchfork shelved it down way low to the 3rd review spot of the day and gave it a 5-point-something, which is kind of funny when you take into account Pitchfork’s review history with the band. The ’59 Sound got an 8.6 and American Slang got a decent 7.3, which put the band in favor over there. Dig a little deeper, and you find that Stereogum’s own Tom was responsible for that great 8.6 review, and this week, he names it the Album of the Week here on ‘Gum. And so it hits you: What if Tom never grew out of Pitchfork? What if Tom was still there and reviewed Handwritten instead of this Deusner fellow, and could have delivered yet another respectable score for these Jersey boys, thus saving them face with readers who take those scores at face value? Unfortunately, people look at Pitchfork reviews as “Pitchfork” reviews and not the by-line attached, but if they bothered to pay attention, they’d find that the guy who told them that The ’59 Sound four years ago is again telling them the Gaslight Anthem are writing great music.

2. Anyone else noticing themes in the reviews? In the both the Aesop Rock and Frank Ocean reviews, written by different people only 2 days apart, the lyrics were compared to Rorschach blots/tests. Also, the Passion Pit and Azealia Banks reviews, both by different writers and released on the same day, began “Here’s an incomplete list of…” and “Here’s a partial list of…” respectively.

Oh wow I think I was drunk when I posted that comment, it slipped my mind until now. No excuse however, but I believe I was going for a crude attempt at irony since obviously the standard rock tropes of Gaslight typically represent conventional masculinity far more than the extravagant instrumentation and luxurious melodies of Passion Pit normally would. Anyway.. who else is boycotting Chik Fil A because of their hateful views?

Oh wait I went back to the article and saw I was already called out on my horrible attempt at levity. Ignore my addendum. My roommate just came out recently, so I should especially know better than to use such inherently hateful terms and to not hide behind a facade of irony to justify my misguided trolling. But I love Gossamer so much because it speaks to my emotions and musical preferences so well and you know how love makes emotions supercede logic. But sorry Stereogummers, I never meant to hurt you.

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